“Saturday Night Live” should be very scared.
Spirit Halloween went after the NBC sketch comedy series for its Season 50 premiere skit that took a dig at the pop-up costume store.
“We are great at raising things back from the dead,” the store wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, alongside a photo of a fake “SNL” costume.
The costume was labeled “Irrelevant 50-year-old TV show.” The packaging said it included “dated references, unknown cast members, and shrinking ratings.”
“SNL” has yet to respond to Spirit Halloween’s clapback.
During the Season 50 premiere that aired Saturday (Sept. 28), the show aired a commercial spoof of Spirit Halloween that parodied the seasonal retailer.
“Times may be good on Wall Street, but on Main Street, communities are struggling,” Heidi Garner says in a voice-over at the start of the sketch. “Closed stores, shuttered businesses, empty parking lots. When hard times hit, it’s easy to feel like no one cares.”
“But helps is on the way,” adds Garner, 41, as fake Spirit Halloween employees (played by Garner, Chloe Fineman and Michael Longfellow) tout the business’s accomplishments.
Fineman, 36, explains, “We’re here providing vulnerable communities with the things they need most: wigs that give you a rash, single-use fog machines, and costumes of famous characters tweaked just enough to avoid a lawsuit.”
Garner jokes that the store is “creating six-week jobs for some of America’s hardest-hit perverts.”
After Fineman declares Spirit Halloween is “helping make dreams come true,” she’s approached by a little girl who asks for a Taylor Swift costume.
Fineman gives the girl a “blonde singing woman” costume. The girl points out that the costume isn’t Swift, to which Fineman responds, “And neither are you.”
At the end of the faux commercial, Fineman, Garner and Longfellow, 30, say, “Spirit Halloween — when you need us, we’ll be here. For six weeks. Because on November 1st we’re gone. And all this junk will be in a dumpster.”
The Season 50 premiere was hosted by Jean Smart with musical guest Jelly Roll.
The episode featured skits that took digs at “House of the Dragon,” “The Real Housewives,” Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, and more.
Cast member Bowen Yang even spoke out after the show received backlash for jokes he made about Roan during the “Weekend Update” segment. He appeared as Moo Deng, the baby hippo who went viral this month, and referenced Roan’s pleas to set boundaries with fans at the time.
“For the past 10 weeks, I have been going nonstop,” said Yang while dressed in a hippo costume. “The response has been overwhelming, but it has come to the point where I need to set some boundaries.”
“Reminder, women owe you nothing. When I’m in my enclosure, tripping over stuff, biting my trainer’s knee, I’m at work, that is the project,” he went on, referencing Roan’s eerily similar Instagram post in August. “Do not yell my name or expect a photo just because I’m your parasocial bestie or because you appreciate my talent.”
Viewers felt that “SNL” was using Roan’s mental health struggles for material. Yang later denied mocking the artist. “Everything she has ever asked for has been reasonable and even then we can connect it to another story about boundaries or whatever. Needing the hose rn…” he wrote in an Instagram Story Sunday.
Roan is set to perform as a musical guest on the variety show on Nov. 2.
The show also poked fun at the upcoming presidential election with Maya Rudolph returning as Vice President Kamala Harris. James Austin Johnson played Donald Trump, Bowen Yang played J.D. Vance, Dana Carvey played Joe Biden and Jim Gaffigan played Gov. Tim Walz.
